Asia’s 50 Best Bars heads to Macau
Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2026 will return to Macau on July 28 at Wynn Palace, bringing awards, guest events, and industry networking back to the Pearl River Delta luxury circuit. (drinkcollectiv.com)
Macau is getting the region’s biggest bar awards twice in a row. Asia’s 50 Best Bars will hold its 2026 ceremony at Wynn Palace on July 28, after the same resort group hosted the 2025 edition on July 15. (drinkcollectiv.com) (wynnresortsmacau.com) That is a change from how this list usually moves around Asia. The official history says the live ceremony was in Singapore in 2018 and 2019, moved online in 2020 and 2021, went to Bangkok in 2022, and landed in Macau in 2025. (theworlds50best.com) Asia’s 50 Best Bars is not just a ranking night. The organizer says the annual list is built alongside a wider event program, and the 2025 Macau edition was also streamed live on Facebook and YouTube after a month of special award announcements. (theworlds50best.com) Macau fits that format because the city is tiny and dense. The World’s 50 Best Bars described Macau as a place of less than 33 square kilometres where notable bars sit inside casino resorts, luxury hotels, and older cobblestone districts. (theworlds50best.com) Wynn is a big reason the event can stay there. The official partner page says Wynn Macau has more than 1,000 rooms and suites across Wynn and Encore, while Wynn Palace Cotai opened in 2016 as the company’s second integrated resort in Macau. (theworlds50best.com) Last year’s Macau program shows what “host city” means in practice. Wynn says it ran a full week of drinks-focused events around the July 15, 2025 ceremony, and 50 Best said that program included bartender-and-chef collaborations inside Wynn Resorts Macau. (wynnresortsmacau.com) (theworlds50best.com) The awards themselves still carry weight because the list reaches across the region, not just one city. The current official top 50 includes bars from Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Jakarta, Tokyo, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Bengaluru, Kathmandu, Tainan, and other cities across Asia. (theworlds50best.com) The 2025 winner was Bar Leone in Hong Kong. The official Asia’s 50 Best Bars page also lists category awards for people and venues from Jakarta, Kathmandu, Seoul, Phnom Penh, Penang, and Hanoi, which turns the ceremony into a reunion point for bartenders spread across a huge map. (theworlds50best.com) So the July 28, 2026 date is not just another hotel event on Cotai. It is a second straight year in which Macau gets the awards, the guest shifts, and the private dealmaking that come when one luxury resort cluster can house the judges, bars, media, and brands in the same place. (drinkcollectiv.com) (wynnresortsmacau.com)
